In wireless systems, an INACTIVE mode of operation is characterized by a low duty cycle (similar to legacy IDLE state) but the user equipment (UE) context is maintained in the radio access network (RAN) in a manner similar to legacy CONNECTED state.
The INACTIVE mode can support small data transmissions in the uplink while the communications device remains in the INACTIVE mode. As an example, the INACTIVE mode is useful for a device with a need to communicate only a minimal amount of data, such as heartbeat or keep-alive packets generated by an application and for aperiodic reports from machine-type communications devices.